Material Exploration

Just trying different ways to manipulate different materials...

1.) Paper/Quilling
2.) Cork/Cutting
3.) Wrapper/Quilling & Placement

Maquettes - Serial Planes

Serial: things in succession or installment, which vary from one another but belong together through form or content.
Planar: made of, or dealing with, planes.
Concave: a negative area in a plane or surface.
Convex: a protrusion, or outwardly pushing form.

1.) horizontal serial planes
2.) horizontal w/ a 90 degree angle
3.) vertical serial planes

Vic Muniz

Since we are beginning to work on a project working with recycled materials I thought I would mention Vik Muniz (Vincente Jose de Oliveira Muniz) and the "Wasteland" project.

"Wasteland" is actually a documentary film by Lucy Walker that follows Vik Muniz over a span of three years while he works in the world's largest dump in Brazil, "Jardim Gramacho" located near Rio de Janeiro. There he met many "catadores," self designated trash pickers. His plans changed after meeting these eccentric characters and soon he began to create portraits of them with the trash they collected from the dump. Their collaboration reveals the dignity and despair of the catadores and explores the combination of art and the human spirit.

I was extremely inspired when I first found this project, I love when something beautiful is created from materials we perceive as ugly or disgusting. I also adore the transformation of how you perceive the subjects. We may look down on these people due to their "dirty" lifestyles, but Muniz makes look past their rough exterior and see them as real individuals. They live, love, and suffer possibly more than than you and I, and should be respected not shunned.

And....

Working...working....done! Idk if I'm completely happy with it, may add more icosahedrons if we are allowed to continue to work on it. What should I name it?

Almost Done!

So I am done linking together my icosahedrons. I was originally going to do this with 15lb monofilament, but decided against it due to the difficulties I was having using the needle on paper. Instead I used safety pins, which were still slightly difficult, but not as bad. I had to lay out the sheet of paper I'm using for the circle to flatten it (I had to carry it back from the store rolled up). It is all being attached to a 48 x 72 piece of foam core. Tomorrow I will be taking it all over to class early so I can attach it there. Otherwise I am afraid it won't make the trip. It's going to be difficult enough just carrying the foam core!

"Hard" Times

So I wouldn't say this is relevant to anything we are learning in class, but I found this very interesting...

The 13th was "la giornata della collera" or "the day of anger" for Italian workers. All of those yellow objects are hard hats laid out in front of the Milan Stock Exchange. All different types of workers came together to lay down their helmets to show their irritation of their countries economy failing and lack of government attention to the job market decline.I am a very political person so this spoke to me as it is a cry for attention from hard working people for change. And as an art I see this as an installation piece as well as the statue it is surrounding is an actual piece created by Maurizio Cattelan called "L.O.V.E." All of this is very inspirational to me, to see art playing a roll in changing our word. And how people can stop thinking of themselves as just individuals and come together to make a difference.

You can find the article here

Breno Cintra

How amazing are these shoes? I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with shoes. These were designed my Breno Cintra and are called "Yanomani Shoes" due to their reference to the Brazilian tribe called the Yanomani. The shoes reflect the Yanomani's temporary architecture constructed with thatched palm leaves and wood. 

I love that his inspiration came from something so natural and pure. It influenced me to look up the Yanomani and learn a little about them.

You can view the article here
Info on the Yanomani here

Day 03-Process

After changing my plan I started working on a new idea which I previously posted. Here are some process images of what I'm doing now! More to come!

Quote One

"The infinite vibratory levels, the dimensions of interconnectedness are without end. There is nothing independent. All beings and things are resident in your awareness" - Alex Grey

This quote relates to my use of polyhedrals in my current and even future project(s). Everything in the universe can be broken down into polyhedral forms. (Icosahedrons, dodecagons, etc.) I am currently using icosahedrons in my project 1. He is proposing that everything is connected, which I am trying to represent in my work. It is how I feel spiritually so it is somewhat important to me to visually show this when I can! You can see how he feels about this idea through his work, pictured below.

New Idea

Changing my idea for my modular relief project due to their being a later project involving a mobile which my first idea is more suitable.

-the color will alternate between black and white within the fan in small sections.
-the polyhedrals will be strung from the center, hanging loosely by monofilament.
-possible strings of the polyhedrals will use wire to control their direction (?)
-they will also change in scale
-paper fastener keeping more than one layer of the manipulated circle together and movable (?)

More to come!